Party cancelled after more than 200,000 confirm attendance

Sydney
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A birthday party invitation sent by an Australian teenager to some of her friends had to be cancelled when more than 200,000 people RSVP’d after her friends invited others by Facebook and the announcement went viral.

A 15-year-old from Chatswood, New South Wales, had to cancel her birthday party scheduled for March 26, after some 200 000 people confirmed their attendance via Facebook, according to Australian media reports.

Jess, a grade 10 student posted on her wall a birthday party announcement asking her friends to tell others because she “did not have the time to invite everyone in person”.

On the following day Jess was surprised to see that more than 20,000 people had already confirmed their attendance. Just a couple of days later the number had increased to 200 000. Another announcement was distributed: "The f*****g party is off!"

The girl’s father said Jess had invited "a few of her Facebook friends" but did not know how to use the privacy settings on Facebook to stop strangers from viewing her party invitation. "She was just anxious about whether anyone would show up to her birthday," he said.

Peter Yeomans of the Chatswood Police Department said that police is planning to set up special patrols to prevent unwanted people turning up on the night of the announced, but frustrated birthday bash.

"It is a huge number of hits and could potentially turn very serious," Inspector Yeomans said to the media.

"The father has given us an undertaking that he will have the Facebook page removed and the party will definitely not be going on," police Inspector Terry Dalton told ABC Radio.